Barclays Cloud Is launched for online banking customers to keep their documents as safe as their money

US bank Barclays has launched a cloud storage solution for its customers so that they can store important documents in a safe online locker that is tied to their online banking accounts.

Barclays Cloud It is an unlimited online document management service and is available to all personal, premier or business customers of Barclays. They can upload bills, receipts, passport scans or any other kind of important file, and place them under tags in order to find them quickly when they need them. Users can also add alerts to their documents which will send them an email or SMS when, say, a bill needs paying or a car MOT is due to expire.

As the service is part of Barclays online banking, it offers the same security protection. Customers' Barclays documents will also be stored in Barclays Cloud, including statements and summaries. More will be added in future.

"Barclays Cloud It is about making our customer's lives easier and creating innovations that allow them to spend less time on banking and more time doing the things that really matter," said Ashok Vaswani, chief executive of Barclays Retails and Business Banking.

"We are really keen to hear what our customers think about the service. We already have plans under way to integrate Barclays Cloud It with our Mobile Banking app and there is far more it could do if our customers tell us they want additional functionality."

Barclays Cloud It is a free service for customers of the bank in the UK.